Posts by andrew


Close view of two dry wulong teas, one with long dark twisted leaves and one with compact green ones.

Where did wulong tea come from? Where is it going?

Newsletter Mar. 10, 2023 Are you wulong aficionado? An intrepid newbie? Someone who’s just looking for a decent cup of tea? This weekend’s feature is for you. We picked six wulong teas to represent the three historic origins of wulong tea in mainland China. These are teas with instant appeal, yet with histories dense enough… // MORE


Close-up of three rows of six tea buds each, arranged vertically in a diagonal line. The row on the left is smallest and the least fuzzy and yellowish, the middle is larger and whiter and hairier, and the right is enormous and covered in down and more curved and crinkled from compression.

The Two (or Three) Silver Needles

Newsletter Mar. 3, 2023 Let’s get right to the point. We’re taking a close look at the fuzzy tea buds of Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle) white tea, Junshan Yinzhen yellow tea, and Bai Long Xu (White Dragon Whiskers) white Puer this weekend. A tea of all tips – still uncommon now and downright rare in… // MORE


Four people holding a tarp around the trunk below a tree, while a fifth prods the branches with a long rod.

Black Teas of the East.

Newsletter Feb. 24, 2023 This weekend, we’re bringing black tea back home to its origins in China’s eastern provinces, featuring our seven teas from there. That includes the new micro-lot of Osmanthus Qimen as well as some exquisite catalog staples: Zui Qun Fang (Drunken Peach), Tongmu Lapsang Souchong, Lapsang Souchong Strong Smoke, Anji Hong, Qimen… // MORE


A fistful of a few dozen sprigs of fresh plucked tea leaves in a few different shades of green, purple, and yellow-green.

The Ruby Star of Yunnan

Newsletter Feb. 17, 2023 This weekend we’re featuring all of our black teas from Yunnan, spanning the daily-drinker, the fancy, the unusual, and the avant-garde. If that’s not enough to quench your thirst for deep-red infusions, we’re capping it all off by offering a very small amount of the legendary Zhongguo Hong (China Red) –… // MORE


A close up of a tea bush covered in white snow, with a white and yellow flower and green leaves protruding from the icy powder.

The sweet cold: In celebration of a long winter.

Newsletter Archive Feb. 10, 2023 As cascades of snow and freezing temperatures hit China’s tea regions these past few weeks, our phones lit up with pictures from our producers. Their familiar tea gardens are now a totally different landscape, one entirely dressed in white. It’s cold out there. Rather than curse the cold, we’re going… // MORE


Two people sitting at a table indoors drinking tea with a big spread of teaware between them.

Recommendations from the heart: Staff favorites from 2022 (Part 1)

Newsletter Archive Jan. 27, 2023 Nearly a month into 2023 we’re finally catching our breath. 2022 was a watershed year in ways large and small. It had a lot of great tea, too. This week focuses on the selections of our office and warehouse team – we’re the ones who write this weekly newsletter, actually.… // MORE


A colorful dancing lion being led through the teahouse to bless it.

Happy Lunar New Year! Year of the Rabbit

Newsletter Archive Jan. 20, 2023 Happy Lunar New Year! This weekend is the Spring Festival, the marker of a new lunar year, auspicious and pure. We hope your Rabbit year hops off to a happy start with good luck, good company, and good tea. We’re celebrating the event with our once-per-year sale of 20% off… // MORE


Two men sitting down together looking at a gaiwan full of rock wulong tea leaves.

Two teas from two Living Treasures: A lineage of mastery in Wuyishan.

Newsletter Archive Jan. 13, 2023 The king of Rock Wulong, Liu Guoying’s Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), is here. With it also comes Liu Dexi’s Tie Luo Han (Iron Monk). We never take the availability of these teas for granted. It’s only through our friendship with the Messrs Liu that they are available to… // MORE


A bank of healthy tea bushes with rising slopes and dark stone exposed cliffs of Wuyishan in the background.

The Personal Touch: Two tea makers and the rock wulong they make.

Newsletter Archive Jan. 6, 2023 This weekend we’re featuring four rock wulongs, including two benchmark classics, Rougui (Cassia Bark) and Shuixian (Narcissus), and two from the road-less-traveled, Ba Xian (Eight Immortals) and Xiao Hong Pao (Little Red Robe). Wulong tea, with its complex and labor-intensive processing, can show the personal touch of its maker in… // MORE


A group of smiling people standing outside in front of a mural, with Zhuping and Austin in the center.

The Gift: All this year and the next.

Newsletter Archive Dec. 30, 2022 Dang! It’s been a weird, scary, challenging, and amazing year. We always say this at the end of every milestone, but it’s always true – it’s a gift to still be here, doing something we care about, and getting to share it with so many people we care about too.… // MORE


A few dozen people smiling in front of the new mural on the side of the new teahouse.

It’s time to take a pause.

Newsletter Archive Dec. 23, 2022 The cold weather, the long nights, the holidays – now is when all the signs are telling us to take a pause. But really, most of us are rushing and working as much as ever. We crank away under year-end deadlines and crises, the peak hospitality season, and the holiday… // MORE


A woman seated at a chair in a kitchen tying large red rosettes to a shining red ribbon that trails off her lap and into a box on the floor.

Lion Food (Oranges, Cabbage, and Red Envelopes) for the Grand Opening

Newsletter Archive Dec. 1, 2022 This Saturday is the grand opening celebration of our new teahouse with a ribbon cutting, a lion dance, and martial arts and musical performances from 10:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The lanterns are hung, the red ribbon is knotted, and we’ve even got a sign on the front of the… // MORE


Close view of amber colored black tea pouring from a soft ruby red easy gaiwan into two matching cups. The cups sit on a bamboo tray and a book on Yixing teapots is visible in the background.

Black teas from the early origins: Three classics in top form.

Newsletter Archive Nov. 4, 2022 This weekend only, you can get 20% off three black teas, one from each of China’s most celebrated and historic centers of black tea production. Each is made from spring leaf from this year, unbroken and unblended for a true picture of their origin. Tongmu Lapsang Souchong: The very first… // MORE


Screenshot of a very old–fashioned website for Seven Cups in a browser window.

20 years old and still green.

Newsletter Archive Oct. 28, 2022 This November marks a full 20 years since Seven Cups officially started business. Let’s honor the occasion by going back to where we started: green tea. We’re showcasing four green teas: the prestigious Xishan Bi Luo Chun, the little champion Mengding Maofeng (Feather Peak), the singular and inimitable Ming Qian… // MORE


A hand pouring steaming hot tea out of a gaiwan into three small porcelain cups on a round clay tea tray.

Flowers from Exile: Dan Cong Wulong

Newsletter Archive Oct. 7, 2022 Dan Cong wulong is a tea of contrasts – it’s potent and nuanced, it’s both sharp and mellow, it’s astringent and sweet all at once. This year, we selected a micro-lot to celebrate the dynamism of the Dan Cong style. Welcome Jianghua Xiang (Ginger Flower). If you’re a Tasting Flight… // MORE


Two people hovering over a table of about a dozen brewed teas for comparative tasting, only their arms in view.

How do you learn the difference between tea terroir, plant variety and processes?

Newsletter Archive Aug. 26, 2022 We’re featuring six teas this week that are perfect for comparative tasting: that’s black teas Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach) and Dianhong Gongfu; wulongs Jin Guanyin (Golden Tieguanyin) and Chuantong Tieguanyin (Traditional Tieguanyin); and green teas Ming Qian Anji Baicha (Early Harvest Anji) and Mao Jian (Misty New Top). People… // MORE


Close view of a painted white gaiwan held up in both hands to show the tea leaves and jasmine petals brewing inside, holding the lid open with one hand and bracing the saucer in the other.

The Favorite Daughters of Sichuan

Newsletter Archive Aug. 19, 2022 This weekend we’re featuring all jasmine teas, all gaiwan and all tea accessories. Born of Sichuan, humble and sophisticated, ancient and modern: a well-used Gaiwan exudes charm and commands reverence. As the legend goes, the first gaiwan was designed by the daughter of a Tang Dynasty Provincial Governor. In the damp… // MORE


A purplish rock on a plate, next to a sculpted yixing teapot and clay teacup.

Yixing and Yancha: A Natural Pair

Newsletter Archive Aug. 12, 2022 This weekend, we’re featuring all Yixing teaware. Need something to brew in that handsome new teapot? We recommend these three classics of Wuyi Rock Wulong: Rougui (Cassia Bark), Shuixian (Narcissus), and Xiao Hong Pao (Little Red Robe). The soils of Wuyishan and Yixing are nearly 400 miles apart from each… // MORE


Two wrapped cakes of puer tea are held above a pile of other puer teas on a wooden table.

Puer tea in your luggage, cellar, or teapot.

Newsletter Archive Aug. 5, 2022 We’re featuring all Puer cakes this weekend. That includes two fresh offerings: the newly restocked Cha Tao (Aged Old Tree) cake and the Jinggu Sheng Xiao Fangzhuan (Little Sheng Jinggu Brick) 2013. As the lore goes, compressed cakes of puer tea came to be in the days of old, when tea… // MORE


In between the rows of bushes in a hillside organic white tea garden, two people hoe weeds. You can see more hills and some buildings in the distance behind them.

The Big Heat: White tea, tall grass, meadow shade.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 29, 2022 This weekend, cool off with Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle) 2022 and Bai Mudan (White Peony) 2021 white teas, as well as the Yunnan “white puer” tea, Yue Guang Bai (White Moonlight) 2018 loose leaf. We’re in the thick of Dashu, the Great Heat, the 12th solar term of the traditional… // MORE


Looking up a narrow valley between small volcanic cliffs, filled with short rows of tea bushes and overshaded by trees.

The great teas of Wuyishan and their gaiwan best friend.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 22, 2022 Behold! The Four Famous Bushes of rock Wulong: Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe), Tie Luo Han (Iron Monk), Shui Jin Gui (Golden Water Turtle), and Bai Ji Guan (White Rooster Crest). This weekend, we’re featuring them and their gold standard brewing vessel, the gaiwan. While these four teas have… // MORE


Several pitchers of black tea of different hues lined up on a stainless steel table.

All black tea considered…

Newsletter Archive Jul. 15, 2022 This weekend, we’re featuring our entire catalog of black teas. That includes both centuries-old classic styles like Tongmu Lapsang Souchong and newly crafted experiments like Anji Hong. If you’re up for doing some black tea experiments of your own, also check out our guide for cold-brewing black teas for summer.… // MORE


A hand sprinkling dry green tea leaves into a pint glass of hot water where they sink to the bottom and unfurl. Next to it, a glass gaiwan brewing already opened leaves.

Making tea is not a test.

Newsletter Archive Jul. 8, 2022 The fresh and aromatic 2022 harvest of Qimen Caixia (Sunrise Keemun) black tea is here – a black tea so classic and distinct, tea tasters just describe its bouquet as “the Qimen aroma.” We’re featuring it and 2022 Mengding Ganlu (Sweet Dew) this weekend. Don’t miss this chance to try… // MORE


Long tables covered in fresh Mogan tea leaves withering indoors.

A Yellow Tea for those in the know.

Newsletter Archive Jun. 24, 2022 Mogan Mountain is known for mythic swords, gangsters, and as a place where Chairman Mao once took a nap. Tea is not its historic claim to fame. And yet, it’s home to a tea garden, a tea factory, and a family of tea makers whose tea is so exceptionally good… // MORE


tall pint glass and a short glass pitcher full of brewing pale green tea leaves in bright sunlight, set on a wooden stool in front of vegetation. An arm reaches into frame to stir the leaves in the pint glass into a swirl with a pair of small wooden tea tongs.

Spring still sings: Anji Baicha and Anji Hong

Newsletter Archive Jun. 17, 2022 The pale jade leaves of 2022 Anji Baicha green teas are here. It took longer than usual, but this year’s harvest showed up as sweet and fragrant as a meadow after a rain shower. It’s been a wild season for Anji County. The spring harvest saw high price swings for… // MORE


Close view from above of two wide porcelain cups of dark tea and two display dishes of dry black tea leaves, surrounded by fresh pink bougainvilleas.

Fresh summer peaches and good black tea.

Newsletter Archive Jun. 10, 2022 Zhuping continues to bring in ripe summer peaches from her backyard tree for us here in Tucson, and just in time for the local peach season, 2022’s harvests of Tongmu Zui Chun Fang (Drunken Peach) and Tongmu Lapsang Souchong are here as well. As usual, these two teas come to… // MORE


Brewing two green teas in a tall glass bottle filled with very long green leaves and a round squat pitcher with rounded small single leaves dancing in it, set on a wooden tray next to a classical white and blue Chinese vase.

Strange Days, Strange Teas

Newsletter Archive May 27, 2022 We are proud to present a fresh crop of Tai Ping Houkui and Lu’an Gua Pian, two more green teas from Spring 2022. Both teas were made using unique, traditional and meticulous methods; their styles are so singular and bizarre that they aren’t replicated anywhere else in the tea world.… // MORE


High overhead view of several tea pickers in straw hats among rows of tea bushes, perpendicular to a large bank of blooming pink trees, harvesting Bi Luo Chun green tea in the spring.

The Tiny and The Strong

Handmade Bi Luo Chun is Potent and Fragile Let’s talk about small leaves, specifically those of Bi Luo Chun green tea and Qimen Caixia black tea. Have you ever counted the tea leaves in your cup? Do that for Bi Luo Chun and you’ll find nearly 100 bud-and-leaf sprigs in a single gram. That’s 100… // MORE


Glasses of tea buds infusing in water touch in a toast against a sunny blue sky.

Single buds from two origins.

Newsletter Archive May 13, 2022 This weekend you can try the fresh 2022 harvests of the extraordinarily rare Junshan Yinzhen yellow tea and the widely popular Baihao Yinzhen “Silver Needle” white tea. If you love these teas or are curious to try at the peak of their aroma, now is your time. Both are plucked… // MORE


A woman wearing a smock and tea plucking basket stands beside a red motorcyle in front of a bamboo grove.

Even more spring tea just in time for Mother’s Day.

Newsletter Archive May 6, 2022 The fresh crop has arrived for 2022 Guzhu Zi Sun (Purple Bamboo Shoot), one of our most unique and small-scale green teas. With the release of this new tea, we’re proud to uphold our years-running Mother’s Day tradition of featuring Purple Bamboo Shoot as tea made by a small-but-mighty team… // MORE